Page 10 - COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE FOURTH PLENARY SESSION OF THE 18TH CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

proficient in and adhere to the system of socialist rule of law with Chinese
characteristics.

It was highlighted at the session that the leadership of the Party provides the
most fundamental guarantee for comprehensively advancing the law-based
governance of China and accelerating the development of a socialist rule of law
country. We must strengthen and improve the leadership of the Party over work
pertaining to the rule of law, and put the Party’s leadership into effect throughout
the whole process of comprehensively advancing the law-based governance of the
country. In adhering to the law-based exercise of state power, officials at all levels
should set an example in observing the law and working in accordance with the
law, and must not behave in a way that is contrary to the law in exercising power.
It is even more imperative that they do not override the law by fiat, place their
power above the authority of the law, or bend the law for personal gain.

We need to strengthen institutions and work mechanisms for the law-based
governance of China under the leadership of the Party; improve work
mechanisms and procedures to ensure that the Party formulates principles, policies,
and plans for the law-based governance of the country; strengthen unified
leadership, unified planning, and overall coordination for comprehensively
advancing the law-based governance of the country; and improve the mechanism
by which Party committees make decisions in accordance with the law. Party
organizations within the people’s congresses, governments, committees of the
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, judicial bodies, and
procuratorial bodies at all levels need to exercise leadership and oversight of their
respective organizations to ensure that they play an exemplary role in obeying the
Constitution and laws, and to resolutely investigate and punish those who break
the law while they should be enforcing it and those who use their power in a way
contrary to the law.

We need to strengthen Party rules and regulations, improve the systems and
mechanisms for their formulation, and create a complete system of Party rules
and regulations. We need to use these rules and regulations to fully implement the
principle of the Party supervising its own conduct and practicing strict
self-governance, and encourage Party members and officials to take the lead in
abiding by state laws and regulations.

We need to make Party members and officials better able to think in terms of
the rule of law and to carry out their work in accordance with the law, incorporate
progress made in building rule of law into the appraisal system as an important
measure of the performance of leading bodies and leading officials at all levels,
and make legal compliance and acting in accordance with the law an important
component of the assessment of officials.

We need to increase the level of rule of law in community-level governance,
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